Solomon Asch, a social psychologist in the mid 20th century, set out to create an experiment that would test humanity’s propensity to conform to the group.

The experiment itself was carried out by selecting 50 individuals and subjecting them to a small vision test among a group of their peers.

All the participants had to do was simply look at two cards, one with a single line drawn on it and another with three lines drawn. Then participants chose which line on the second card was the same length as the single line on the first card.

The entire test was crafted to be as unambiguous as possible with an obviously correct answer in each experiment. All the participants had to do was say the obvious answer out loud after each of their peers had given their answer.

Unbeknownst to the participants, this was the true experiment. The group of “peers” taking the vision test alongside them were in on the experiment. Their mission was to unanimously give the wrong answer.